Talking about books

This week I got to talk about my favourite books or rather books that inspired me to write (this was for my MOOC - The future of story telling; which I am loving btw).

The assignment was to talk about only 3 pieces of work that inspired you and you had to video your talk (eek!). So I did my homework and had a blast! My video is below if you feel like checking out my dorky presentation.

The books I chose were: 

• Middlemarch by George Elliot - This book is inspirational because it shows how great writing can make boring everyday milieu captivating. I truly love this book and have read it many times.
• Boy and Going Solo by Roal Dahl - A delightful insight into this great children's author's childhood and young adult years. Dahl's honesty and ability to create humour out of sometimes disastrous events gives us a glimpse in to how his writing style developed. Another beautiful book
• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - The first in the Thursday Next series which I am truly addicted to. The series has been described as literary detective novels, which they are but that doesn't encompass how wildly different and clever these books are. If you want something different to read, give these a go. The author was very brave to write these books as they don't really fit into a set genre and that's why I find them inspirational.

PS: the sound quality is very soft in the video but if you put on headphones it will be louder.

The Fictional Pull

I haven't written any fictional stuff for quite a few years now and I haven't had anything published since my mother died. The 'pull' to create characters and build their world hasn't really been there. Perhaps that's why I decided to join the MOOC on Storytelling. 

Nice. Yes it's nice to be writing fiction again. I've started a new story called Osmosis City (atm) and this week's MOOC task was to introduce a fictional character so I decided to let Willow 472 have the stage. I've even created her own blog and I'll give the story some space there. Meet Willow:

I must say that this writing has been cathartic, which is my word of the week!

There are a number of definitions for this word but these I like best (from http://www.thefreedictionary.com):

cathartic - emotionally purging psychotherapeutic healthful - conducive to good health of body or mind; "a healthful climate"; "a healthful environment"; "healthful nutrition"; "healthful sleep"; "Dickens's relatively healthful exuberance"
		cathartic - emotionally purging (of e.g. art) releasing artistic creation, artistic production, art - the creation of beautiful or significant things; "art does not need to be innovative to be good"; "I was never any good at art"; "he said that architecture is the art of wasting space beautifully" emotional - of more than usual emotion; "his behavior was highly emotional"

My funny bone

Last week I spent a wonderful few days in Cairns at the NACCHO Ear and Hearing Symposium. I got to work with, and present to some wonderful Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander groups on Hearing Health career paths. The highlight of the symposium was the Gala Dinner and the comedian Kevin Kropinyeri . Funny, funny bloke. 

Being one of a small number of 'white fellas' in the room it was probably the first time in my life I was in the minority. Kevin is a bloody funny bloke and gave some hilarious insights into the dating game in Aboriginal culture as well as taking the piss out of how white fellas approach dating. He was spot on - we are such a bunch of tossers and take ourselves way too seriously. Kevin got me thinking about what makes people laugh. Mostly we like to laugh at ourselves and at each other's flaws or foibles. Pretty much the same in most cultures I'd say! As Kevin pointed out - as long as we are laughing with him, not at him it's okay. If you don't find this bloke funny then you are missing something - possibly your sense of humour!

Word of the Week: FOIBLE

foi·ble

  [foi-buhl] 

noun

1.

a minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect: an all-too-human foible.

2.

the weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point (opposed to forte )

Definition (from dictionary.com)

Mitchell's nose-picking foible was annoying at best.